Mike Love: 'I Did Not Fire Brian Wilson From The Beach Boys'

October 5, 2012 02:48 PM EDT

Mike Love is tackling the headlines that he axed Brian Wilson and Al Jardine from legendary pop group The Beach Boys, following the band’s 50th anniversary tour recently.

“I did not fire Brian Wilson from the Beach Boys. I cannot fire Brian Wilson from the Beach Boys. I am not his employer. I do not have such authority. And even if I did, I would never fire Brian Wilson from the Beach Boys,” Love wrote in a piece printed on the LA Times website on Friday. “I love Brian Wilson. We are partners. He’s my cousin by birth and my brother in music.”

At the end of September, as the tour wrapped up in London, a press release was issued that noted that once the 50th anniversary dates were over, the dates that followed would not include Brian Wilson, Al Jardine and David Marks.

“I’m disappointed and can’t understand why he (Love) doesn’t want to tour with Al, David and me. We are out here having so much fun. After all, we are the real Beach Boys.”

But, according to Love, in his piece for the LA Times, things were always set up that way.

“This tour was always envisioned as a limited run. None of us wanted to do a 50th anniversary tour that lasted 10 years. It was meant to be special. In fact, very early on, Brian was just going to join the tour for a few dates in big cities. We finally settled on 50 dates in 50 major markets. Brian, Al and I signed an agreement outlining the beginning and end of the tour,” Love wrote.

The singer wrote that following those dates, the format of the band was set to change.

“Like any good party, no one wanted it to end. However, that was impossible, given that we had already set up shows in smaller cities with a different configuration of the band — the configuration that had been touring together every year for the last 13 years,” Love continued. “Brian and Al would not be joining for these small market dates, as was long agreed upon.”

The singer went on to claim it was “not feasible, both logistically and economically, for the 50th anniversary tour to play these markets” with the Wilson-Jardine-Love-Marks lineup.

Love went on to note that he has the license to “tour as ‘The Beach Boys’” and he has worked hard to “uphold, honor and further our legacy.”

He concluded his LA Times piece, writing that “The Beach Boys are bigger than those who created it.”

Despite contracts behind the scenes, in late September, Jardine promoted a petition launched by a fan online to keep the band together with Love, Jardine, Marks and Wilson. To date, the petition, started by a fan, has more than 8,000 online signatures.

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